Human-carnivore conflicts in northern Kenya
The increase in human population has speeded up habitat loss, greatly affecting wildlife. Humans and wild species are living increasingly closer to each other, which intensify the clash between man and wildlife. In the ecosystem of Amboseli (Kenya), the large populations of carnivores have declined and their geographical distribution has been reduced due to a process of retaliation in which Maasai shepherds kill them for the predation of cattle. The mitigation of human-wildlife conflicts (HWC) stands as a key conservation issue, but there’s still a major knowledge gap to assess the causes and consequences of HWC and their impact on human societies and wildlife populations.
Our focus was on the magnitude and motivating factors of HWC in different ecosystems in order to improve human-wildlife coexistence in anthropogenic environments and build on local support for conservation. We used an innovative interdisciplinary approach, applying methodologies that take into account the sociological, psychological and ecological dimensions of the conflict. We especially centered our attention on HWC in Kenya’s drylands using detailed data on cattle predation in two Amboseli group ranches (Olgulului and Mbirikani) in order to know the impact of climate variability on the large carnivore predation of cattle in the Amboseli ecosystem.
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